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Friday, 6 September 2013

Misguided Kin... Dark eldar vs Eldar 1500

A
slight rest from my Eldar in order to use my Dark eldar, totally different I
know. This is a kind of rematch against my chaos opponent the other weak (here)
but instead of using his Chaos he used his Eldar. So a rematch but between
different forces. The game was 1500 points, Crusade with 4 objectives, with
Dawn of war deployment.

The
Armies

For
fun I brought a raider heavy list with a little defence line just to mix it up.

Dark
Eldar 1498

Haemonculus
– 65 (Warlord: Divide and Conquer) w/warriors 1

Venom
blade, Liquifier gun

Haemonculus
– 65 w/ warriors 2

Venom
blade, liquefier gun

Haemonculus
– 55 w/ Wyches

Venom
blade

10
Warriors (1) – 115

Dark
lance

10
Warriors (2) – 115

Dark
lance

10
Warriors – 100

Splinter
cannon

Raider
– 60

Dark
lance, splinter racks

10
Warriors – 100

Splinter
cannon

Raider
– 60

Dark
lance, splinter racks

10
Wracks – 100

Raider
– 60

Dark
lance

9
Wyches – 108

Haywire
grenades

Raider
– 60

Dark
lance

Ravager
– 105

3
x Dark lance

Ravager
– 105

3
x Disintegrator

Ravager
– 105

3
x Disintegrator

Defence
line – 100

Quadgun

So
this list is a very basic, troop heavy list which has nothing scary on its own.
No single squad will be able to do a large amount of damage but if they work
together then I am hoping for great things. At least my army is fast with its
transports if nothing else.

Eldar
1500

Spiritseer
W/ wraithguard

10
Dire avengers

Exarch

5
rangers

5
Wraithguard

D-Sythes

6
Fire dragons

Exarch,
fire pike

Wave
serpent

Holo
field, scatter lasers, shuriken cannon

Crimson
hunter

Exarch

6
Swooping hawks

Exarch, Hawks Talon

Wraithlord

Bright
lance

Wriathknight
– (warlord: D3 [3] re-rolls)

Scatter
laser, suncannon

A
very small army, but very powerful one with high toughness across the board. He
doesn’t have a large number of anti-tank or even high strength shots so if I
keep my tanks on the outskirts of the table they should survive long enough to
really count. We shall see though.

The
Mission

Rolling
for mission we get Crusade and end up with 4 objectives. Deployment zones
rolled up as dawn of war so nice and simple. I won the roll for deployment zone
and then set up my defence line across the edge of my deployment zone so I
could be manning it turn 1. It reached from the large ruins to the left of my
deployment zone until it hit a terrain feature so just curved round. Objectives
were placed next; I placed my two down, with 1 behind the defence line and the
other in the middle level of the ruins. My opponent set up his objectives in
the swamp and trees in his deployment zone.

Rolling
for first turn the Eldar won and elected to deploy and go first. He set up his
fire dragons in the wave serpent and placed it on the far right side of the
table assuming I was going to be behind my line. The wraithknight and
wraithlord go next to the serpent more towards the centre of the table. The
spiritseer and wraithguard go behind them and the dire avengers are placed in
the wood. Rangers infiltrate and the hunter goes into reserve with the hawks.

I
was unsure what to do really as this point so thought I would attempt to
distract him with the combat aspects while shooting him with the rest. I set up
warrior squad 2 behind the defence line and warrior squad 1 inside the ruin.
The wyches and wracks in raiders go on the right to try and force him to focus
on them. The ravagers hang at the back of the table with the warrior raiders
being placed on the left side.

The
rangers are then infiltrated into the swamp in his deployment zone.

Deployment

Night
fight: turn 5

Steal
the Initiative: YES!

The
Battle

Dark
eldar turn 1

So
I stole the first turn, what a beautifully dark eldar thing to do. In order to
take full advantage of this I send both my wych raider and wrack raider
straight at the eldar lines, hoping that they will only manage to hurt 1 of the
squads leaving the other to assault something and be a pain in the ass. Two
ravagers skirt around the left side of the table while one moves towards the
right. Both warrior squads in raiders move forwards to shoot as much as they
can.

Shooting
starts with the warrior squad shooting at max range at the rangers, managing to
down a single eldar. Their raider follows suit killing another ranger. The
quadgun targets the dire avengers killing 1 of the aspect warriors who are they
shot at by a disintegrator ravager who kills 3 more though the trees. The
wyches raider shoots at the wave serpent and glances it while the wrack raider
boosts straight towards the wraithknight. He will have to deal with them or
risk losing a few wounds on the wraithknight or lord. Not a very exiting first
turn.

Eldar
turn 1

The
spiritseer casts voice of twilight invigorating all the wraith constructs
around him (giving them battlefocus). The wave serpent moves forwards 6 inches
into difficult terrain and manages to immobilised itself. With their transport
damaged the fire dragons jump out and move towards the wych raider. The
wraithknight jumps forwards and the wraithguard consolidate around the
objective getting ready to shoot the raider.

In
a ranging inferno the wych raider explodes under the pressure from the fire
dragons’ melta weapons (first blood). 3 wyches die in the explosion and then
the fire dragons battle focus away. The dire avengers somehow manage to get 3
glancing hits on the wracks raider and only 1 is saved by Jink. The final hull
point is taken off by the wraithlord bright lance making the wracks disembark.
Seeing an opportunity the wraithguard battle focus forwards and flame the
wracks, killing all but 1 who (foolishly) holds his ground. Immobilised but not
harmless the wave serpent shoots at the wyches killing 5 of them. To finish off
the turn the wraithknight shoots at the warlord warrior squad and kills 4 of
them off, but thankfully they hold their ground.

Dark
eldar turn 2

With
the wraithknight in the open I move a warrior raider and ravagers to optimise
shots on it, If I can kill It this turn it would be a large blow to the eldar.
The wych and haemonculus moves towards the wave serpent. The other warrior
raider moves towards the rangers, I want to kill all of his scoring units off
if I can.

The
solid shots of the quadgun manage to wound the wraithknight even though he uses
a re-roll to try to save the monster. The other warrior squad on foot shoot at
it and their sheer weight of fire power manage to take another wound off it
(again using a re-roll). The first warriors on raider shoot at the wraithknight
again taking a wound off the monster and using up first final re-roll! So only
3 wounds left and no re-rolls. The other warrior boat shoots at the rangers and
kills off the squad (gaining a pain token). Triple dark lances shoot at the
wraithknight and this time his shield protects him, forcing my wyches to take a
blind test but they pass. A ravager with triple disintegrators targets the
knight and somehow deals 2 wounds on it, even though it needed 6+ to wound. The
other ravager targets the wraithguard but only kills 1 thanks to them being in
cover. The last wych throws a haywire grenade at the wave serpent but
somehow misses the still tank...

Assault
phase and the wych charges into the wave serpent and this time manages to use
its haywire grenade to glance it, reducing it to 1 hull point.

Eldar
turn 2

Reserves
are rolled and thanks to my warlord trait only the swooping hawks come in! They
are placed behind the defence line to the right next to the ruin. They drop
their grenade pack onto the warriors manning the quadgun and kill 4 of them
(Feel no pain saved 2). The spiritseer casts renewal on the wraithknight
healing it by 1 wound. With the wave serpent in danger the fire dragons move to
get rid of the wyches in the only way they know how. Again the wraithknight
gets very aggressive and moves straight towards my warlord. At the end of the
movement phase I INTERCEPT with the quadgun and shoot at the swooping hawks and
manage to kill 3 including the exarch! Not a bad retaliation.

Not
wanting to let the warriors get away with murdering their brethren, the hawks
shoot back and manage to kill 2 more warriors, they then battle focus into the
ruin. A little bit of overkill next as the fire dragons shoot at the wych and haemonculus
killing them both. Not free the wave serpent shoots at the ravager on my right
and gets a penetrating hit on it blowing off a weapon. The wraithlord once
again goes tank hunting and explodes the ravager just hit by the serpent. The
wraithknight shoots at the warriors including my warlord and manages to kill
off every warrior leaving the warlord standing, defiant to the last.

Assault
phase and the wraithknight rolls enough to charge into the haemonculus, while
we didn’t move him up we though it looked cool. Unfortunately the combat is a
little 1 sided and my warlord gets turned into a smear on the ruins wall. What
did you expect?

Dark
eldar turn 3

With
the rangers gone an objective has opened up so a warrior squad and a ravager
move up to go after it. The rest of the skimmers move back to try and combat
the wounded wraithknight who will be able to crush anything he wants if left
unchecked. The warriors manning the defence line move to get a few more models
in range of the hawks.

Starting
with the warriors on hawks, the liquifier gun manages to clip 2 hawks and kill
them both, the warriors fail to do anything. The triple lance ravager aims at
the wraithknight but once again fails to do anything to it. The warriors in
raider next to it however are my little stars as they manage to get 10 wounds
on it and he fails 2 saves, killing the wraithknight and granting me slay the
warlord. Up in his deployment zone the disintegrator ravager shoots at the
wraithguard and kills the whole squad off leaving the spiritseer on his own.
The warriors snap shot at the dire avengers and manage to kill a single aspect
warrior.

Eldar
turn 3

In
comes the crimson hunter and it hides behind the ruin so the quad gun can’t
target it. The fire dragons moves though cover towards my deployment zone, they
are practically out the game now as I won’t let them catch me. The wraithlord
moves behind a wall so it has a cover save from all the ap2 shots. The lone
swooping hawk skyleaps to safety while the dire avengers take back the
objective the wraithguard died defending, and it joined by the spiritseer.

Making
its mark the crimson hunter exarch shoots at the dark lance ravager and makes
it explode under the pressure of its lance shots. The wraithlord shoots its
lance at the warrior raider and glances it.

Dark
eldar turn 4

The
last ravager moves to target the dire avengers and both the raiders move to get
into range of taking the objectives, but 1 moves within 12 inches of the
wraithlord.

9
shots from the ravager is more than enough to kill off the remaining dire
avengers. He now has no troops left to take objectives. The warriors closet to
the wraithlord shoot at it and the sheer volume of shots on the monster kill it
in a single turn. That was rather lucky.

Eldar
turn 4

In
comes the hawk again and hides, dropping the grenade pack on the warriors
killing 2 (including the guy on the quadgun). The crimson hunter moves behind
the ruin to target the warriors.

The
crimson hunter again shows its skills and kills off the remaining warriors
including the haemonculus. Running for line breaker the fire dragons continue
into my deployment zone.

Dark
eldar turn 5

The
sky darkens as night falls. Pulling back the ravager goes after the crimson
hunter as it has a chance of doing something to it. One warrior squad jumps out
of their raider and grabs the swamp objective while the other warriors go
towards the spiritseer manning my opponents other objective.

Aiming
into the sky the ravager hits the crimson hunter twice and he decides to evade,
I manage to get a single glance which he saves. At least he can only snap shot
next turn.

For
fun the warriors charge into the spiritseer, but the psyche proves to be more
than a match as he kills a warrior. But they hold.

Eldar
turn 5

The
crimson hunter moves behind the warriors on the objective and shoots at them,
but fails to hit with any shot. In combat the spiritseer kills another warrior
but opens up his defence allowing a blade to injure him, reducing him to his
final wound.

We
roll to see if the game carries on...

Dark
eldar turn 6

The
ravager again moves to target the crimson hunter but this time fails to even
hit it. In combat the warriors manage to kill off the spiritseer and overrun
onto the objective.

Eldar
turn 6

The
crimson hunter shoots at the warriors who assaulted the spiritseer and kills 2
and the wave serpents scatter laser can just see them and kills 2 more. They
hold though.

Well
looking over that I can see I got very lucky on a few occasions, namely the
number of wounds I caused and my opponents failure to make armour saves. This
meant I could kill the wraithknight, as if I failed to do that he could have
run rampant though my lines and killed more troops. Something that really would
have messed me up. Having 6 troop’s choices and my opponent only having 3 also
was a major advantage for me in an objective based mission. Either way it was a
good game and it would have gone either way in the opening turns.

Wraithknights:
With the suncannon they are a lot scarier than with the two heavy wraith
cannons, i will have to test this out with my eldar list. I liked how it
did.

Poison:
It was scary how much damage it did against his monsters. This just
happened to work very well in my favour, if he had taken a more foot
orientated or even mech I would have been screwed.

FNP:
Having the haemonculi really didn’t help this game as most of his shots
were strength 6 so ignored my feel no pain. That said I just used what I liked
and I like them, I’m not going to list tailor now am i.